I hope that since Grendel and I are the only parents who have actually made this decision our opinions will be respected and believed. I will be completely honest about why we did choose to implant her.
My daughter's situation is a little different. She was actually born hearing and *did* lose her hearing. It was something she had that then went away.
When we decided to get her hearing aids, we didn't actually think about it. She had a loss and hearing aids would help her hear better, case closed. She continued to lose hearing and then she got to the point where she couldn't tell if her aids were in or out. At the same time she developed an interest in sound and spoken language. She would ask us why she couldn't hear things she used to hear, things like that. We started wondering if an implant would benefit her.
When we investigated the CI, all we were hoping for was a return to the fuctioning level she had with her hearing aids before she lost the last bit of hearing. We wanted her to turn towards us when we called her name, so we could get her attention when we wanted to sign to her. We NEVER expected more than that. We never expected her to be able to access spoken language. We just figured she was one of those kids who was unable to learn spoken language....boy were we wrong!!!
Within a few hours of activation Miss Kat was asking for the spoken words for things. She LOVED hearing. She started gaining spoken language at an amazing rate. We decided that we wanted to emphasis spoken language for awhile so we decided to attend John Tracy Clinic's summer session. When we returned from the session Miss Kat told us she wanted to go back to a "talking school", so we switched her programs. (Though to be honest, I think we would have changed it even if she hadn't. But if she had objected, we would have changed it back.)
I never felt like we were fixing her, even though it could be viewed that way. We saw it as a chance to access to sound. We saw it as a way to open some doors for her, an opportunity to give her more.
As for the "definition of surgery", I always thought it was anything that a doctor did that opened the skin....I don't think there is judgement in the word.
